Monday, July 24, 2017

We are all familiar with invention—the process of creating something
new and useful. But what about the creativity factors that play a large
role in this process? The form of creativity leading to invention is
called inventiveness. How can you lead your teachers or colleagues to promote inventiveness in the classroom?

The Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development at
the University of Iowa includes a great overview of inventiveness in
their “Invent Iowa Curriculum Guide”.
Invent Iowa, started in 1987, was created to help teachers promote the
invention process in their classrooms as well as allow students to
showcase their inventions at state and local conventions. The Invent
Iowa guide states inventiveness includes four components.

Fluency– the ability to brainstorm

Flexibility– the ability to think in new and different ways

Elaboration– the ability to add details or missing parts

Originality– the ability to create things that are new

In this program, the grade 3-8 students are encouraged to use a
series of problem-solving steps when during the invention process.

They begin by identifying or finding a problem that might be solved or lessened with an invention.

They then gather information about related inventions.

Before an inventor begins creating, he/she explores the idea in-depth.

As the student inventor explores their idea in depth, he/she needs to
answer the common thinking questions to prompt them to think of all the
aspects – who, what, where, when, and why. There is an additional
question the inventor needs to think about, and that is “how” – “How can
I make the invention?” “How can I get investors?” “How can I market the
invention?”
The Invent Iowa Curriculum Guide includes a rubric
which can help the classroom teacher develop the timelines and task
goals with the students. It includes the problem, the solution, the
explanation, the uniqueness, the benefits, the inventor’s log, and the
invention itself. The higher order thinking skills of evaluating,
analyzing, and creating, as well as the importance of reflection,
comprise a large part of this process.

The curriculum guide also provides some tips for teachers for instilling a climate for inventiveness in the classroom.

Create challenge and motivation

Stimulate student questioning

Asking questions calling for creative thought

Discuss the “unknowns”

Encourage students to challenge their assumptions

Provide freedom for exploration

Establish trust and openness

Defer judgment whenever possible

Use affirmative judgment

Permit liveliness and dynamism

Encourage student involvement and ownership

Encourage playfulness and humor

Allow for examining differing ideas and viewpoints

Minimize conflicts

Encourage risk-taking, rather than “safe” responses and conformity

Provide time for thought and action

However, to spur the creativity and have students adopt the
inventiveness mindset, there some interesting ways for the classroom
teacher to foster creativity in the classroom. Kristin Hicks, in an Edudemic blog post, provides five ways to bring this about. Her thoughts and ideas deal with student choice, and include:

Allow students choice in the format of their assessments. Even have
them mix and match formats, for example, a video with a recorded podcast
review.

Try to set aside some time each day for students to follow their passions. Create a “genius hour”.

Use technology to broaden your idea of assignments. For instance,
use Google Maps along with a novel, have students interview experts on
Skype and follow experts on Twitter or in a Reddit group to gather their
information for a research paper, etc.

Make sure your tech toolbox includes some unconventional tech tools.
Have students create a TED talk about a chapter in the science book,
have them draw an XKCD-like comic strip, or create a Fakebook page for an explorer. (I have tons of categorized online tools on this page for you to investigate!)

Encourage discussion among students, using the Socratic seminar
method, so students are not afraid to take a risk, learn how to
formulate good questions, and how to respect the opinions of others.
(Take a look at a recent Kathy’s Katch blog post I penned, Civil Discourse in the Classroom, to investigate more about helping students learn to value someone else’s point of view.)

I also am a fan of Stacey Goodman’s methods of encouraging divergent thinking in his classroom. His expected results would lead to a climate of inventiveness, too.

Problem-based learning: Instead of giving the students the problem
to solve, have them create the problem questions based on their own
knowledge and passions.

Setting norms: Develop activities that encourage students to defer
judgement. If students know they will not be immediately judged, they
are more likely to offer divergent ideas.

Inquiry and observation: Have students spend time observing, hold
back on expressing their likes and dislikes, and follow-up with
statements or questions such as “I noticed…”, “Why…?”, and “How…?”.

Encouraging play and managing failure: Develop activities that
encourage students to play and experiment, followed by reflection and
iteration until they are satisfied with the result. Help them learn not
to be afraid to make mistakes.

Use art strategies: Goodman is an art teacher, and he presents some art activities in the article that would easily work across the content areas to promote inventiveness.

Another succinct overview of the components that can help lead to creativity and inventiveness has been developed by Tanner Christensen.

Discovery Education has material to support creative thinking in your classroom.

The Spotlight on Strategies (SOS) “Take a walk”
activity is based on a Stanford University study which found that
creative thinking improves as you walk and for a short time after.

The video “Above & Beyond“, created by Fablevision, showcases how a collaborative project can lead to some creative results!

After looking at both the Hicks and Goodman criteria and the Discovery Education resources,
I don’t believe inventiveness is tied just to the invention process. I
think it is a natural part of the creative and divergent thinking
processes, too. For some fascinating reading, the Creative Something blog,
written by Tanner Christensen, explores the science of how creative
thinking works to help his audience “use it every day to create,
empower, and motivate”. Isn’t that what we want for students?

Allowing students to pursue their passions, in a way meaningful to
them, is a process that can be mentored and practiced in the classroom.
By giving students both time and practice in questioning, collaborating,
researching, designing, iterating, re-designing, and reflecting, we
will be empowering and motivating them to apply the process of
inventiveness both in and out of the classroom!

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